Gamatsu
thumb|right|300px|Gamatsu written script. Gamatsu, directly translated as Heavenly (Amatsu) Word (Go), was originally the high language of the Koudminshu race. This language, however, is almost a dead langauge to them nowadays, only used in Ceremonial tradition these days. It is also the ceremonial language of the Templars of Twilight. All Templars are taught in its use, and while very few of them use it in everyday conversation, every templar is fluent in the language by at least the time they reach the rank of Gurei Deshi. Origin Many Templar scholars argue over the exact nature of the language, but many agree that it must have been more of a 'high language' that was only used by the elite, as it has very few grammar rules and most writings that have been found put a very heavy emphasis on the concept of heaven and angelic spirits. This is further proven by the fact that it is very hard to use as a conversational language. Most scholars agree that the language is at least 30,000 years old since the oldest recorded writing discovered was dated to be roughly 27,000 years old. This writing was discovered upon Boz Pity, giving life to the rumour whatever extinct race created the monstrous ruins upon the planet were the owners to the mysterious language. There is currently no way to prove or disprove this theory, however. It is a favorite among conspiracy theorists, however, in that they theorize that the Templars are guardians to some ancient and mysterious history that not only holds the answers to what race inhabited Boz Pity, but how the galaxy was created and the first original species to inhabit it. These rumours have always been denied by the Templars, however, and very few scholars even believe it to be remotely plausible. Use Gamatsu is used like any other language, but unlike most languages, it has very few grammatical rules. Its punctuation and phrasing rules are similar to Basic, but it has little to no conjugation or special rules referring to pronouns, or gerunds or different types of verbs and adjectives. Adjectives and adverbs may come before or after the noun, verb or adjective they are describing, as long as they are exactly next to it. Verbs have no conjugation and the language makes no difference between formal and informal nouns and pronouns. Compound sentences do not exist in this language and the only punctuation used is either a period or a question mark. For example, if one was to say that they were on their way to someplace and was happy or sad about it, it would be far different in basic than in Gamatsu. In basic, it would be: "I'm on my way to the senate, and I'm certainly glad about it too." In Gamatsu, however, it would either be "I'm happy to senate." or "I'm traveling senate. I'm happy in traveling senate." This doesn't present problems when conversing, but it does present problems when someone is trying to translate the language into basic. Just like basic, Gamatsu can have one word that means three or four different things depending on the situation in which it's used. However, since there are no modifiers in Gamatsu, or defining pronouns, this can become more like a puzzle than a simple translation. In fact, Gamatsu is the only language in which the verb "to be" doesn't exist. The Atorekki While the letters of Gamatsu can translate to the letters used in Basic, they go by far different names. The alphabet of Gamatsu is called the "Atorekki," and literally translated means letter list. *A = Awh *B = Boh *C = Kara *D = Duhn *E = Efay *F = Fohra *G = Grah *H = Hohn *I = Eet *J = Jeet *K = Keyoh *L = Luka *M = Mura *N = Neru *O = Orit *P = Poh *Q = Kuya *R = Ret *S = Set *T = Tuhn *U = Yo *V = Vona *W = Yona *X = Skata *Y = Yi *Z = Zuhn Plural To make a word plural, the syllable ka is added to the end of the word with a single quote seperator between the two. In the rare case that the word already ends with ka then the syllable ta is used instead. For example, if you wanted to make ninshou (person) plural (persons/people), you would make it ninshou'ka. If, however, you wanted to make oroka (idiot/stupid) plural, you would make it oroka'ta. Adjectives To make a word into an adjective, the syllable 'ei' or 'ai' is added at the end of the word and the original last letter of the word is taken away. Either syllable can be used in any situation. However, if the adjective being used is the original meaning, nothing is added. For example, if you wanted to take the word for idiot which is oroka, and turn it into a adjective that would either mean stupid or idiotic, you would write it as orokei. However, if you wanted to use just idiot as the adjective, then you would just use oroka. For example, if you wanted to say "That stupid person," you would say "Sono orokei ninshou." If, however, you wanted to say "My idiot brother," you would say "En oroka chijin." Adverbs are done the same way. Superlatives and Comparatives Superlatives and comparatives don't really exist in Gamatsu. Instead, however a defining adjective is used to grade the goodness or badness of something, whether relating to another thing or not. The defining adjectives used are either numerical (first, second, third...) or relative in size (big, small). For example, if you were to say "I am the best," you would literally say "I am first good." If you were to say "I am better than you," you would say "I am big good you." The reason these are considered superlatives and comparatives, however, is because they use a connector just like plural words. Superlatives are connected only with the main adjective, whereas the comparative is connected with both the main adjective and the pronoun being compared. For example, if you were to say "I am first good," you wouldn't write it as "Ore gozen kan tame." You would write it as "Ore gozen kan'tame." "I am big good you" would be "Ore gozen kyo'tame'maro." In the same sense, these become new words and are pronounced as single words, not seperate words. For example, by basic principles, it would be phrased as "Ore-gozen-kyo-tame-maro." In reality, however, the correct phrasing is "Ore-gozen-kyotamemaro." Questions and Exclamations In Gamatsu writing, there are no exclamations, giving the langauge an extremely calm sense. There are questions, however, but there are no interrogative variables like in other langauges such as Mando'a. Instead, a question mark is just put after the sentence and no words are reveresed. For example, in Basic the sentence "We are going to the theater" would be changed to "Are we going to the theater." In Gamatsu, however, it stays the same. "We are going to the theater" would be the statement and "We are going to the theater" would be the question as well. The only difference is the question mark. For example, the statement "Orera yuki za fune." (We going the ship) is the same exact phrasing and order as "Orera yuki za fune?" (We going the ship?). The first is translated as "We are going to the ship," while the second is the same exact translation, only phrased as a question: "We are going to the ship?" Numbers In Gamatsu, only the numbers One through twelve were unique. All other numbers were a pairing of one or more of those original twelve. For example, fourteen would be "tenfour", fifteen is "tenfive" and so on and so forth. The Tens (20, 30, 40) are #tens. So 20 would be "twotens", thiry is "threetens", and so on and so forth. The hundreds are quite simple. One hundred would be "hundred." Two hundred would be "twohundreds." Three hundred is "threehundreds" and so on and so forth. The same goes for thousands, hundred-thousands, millions, etc. For mixed numbers (i.e. "one hundred and five") the numbers are just placed next to each other in one word with a ' seperator between each number being joined. For example, three hundred and four would just be "threehundreds'four" or "Sanhyaku'ka'shi." One thousand three hundred and four would be "thousand'threehundreds'four" or "Ikusen'sanhyaku'ka'shi." Pronunciation Gamatsu words are pronounced with rolled R's and in a very flowing dialect, unlike Huttese, which is pronounced in a very strict and dry rhythm. A good language to compare Gamatsu's phrasing and pacing to, is the real world language of Gaelic or Finnish. Words There are nearly a hundred thousand words in Gamatsu, most of which have many different definitions depending upon their use. The following are a few common words that would help a regular non-speaker to converse simply in the language. *''eshaku'': hello/greetings/welcome *''za'': the *''sono'': that/those *''sona'': this/these *''hai'': yes *''ina'': no *''tetsuda'': help me *''fujo'': help (v) *''sanpo'': walk *''kouro'': run *''chouyaku'': skip/jump/hop *''ninshou'': person *''chi'': male/man/boy *''yuu'': female/woman/girl *''ko'': child *''chuuko'': old *''cheeko'': young *''aisatsu'': goodbye/farewell *''o'': in *''oite'': inside *''au'': out *''auto'': outside *''dorinku'': drink (n) *''potaju'': drink (v) *''meshi'': food *''taberu'': eat (v) *''sou'': bed *''suri'': lie down *''suripu'': sleep *''surita'': awake (v) *''sougishiki'': awake *''sougishiko'': asleep *''gishiko'': tired *''gishika'': not tired/wide awake/excited *''yukai'': happy/happiness *''daiyukai'': ecstatic/joyous/ecstasy/joy *''hisou'': sad/unhappy/unhappiness/sadness *''daihisou'': depression/depressed *''rippuku'': anger/angry *''kirai'': dislike *''daikirai'': hate/hatred *''suwa'': chair *''kyosuwa'': couch *''suwaru'': sit *''geru'': money *''nan'': what *''nanra'': where *''nani'': when *''donna'': why *''nanto'': how *''an'': there *''anra'': then *''refuto'': left (direction) *''ontou'': right (direction) *''zen'': right *''zan'': wrong *''sei'': sex/gender *''bouji'': sex/lovemaking *''nikui'': hard/diffcult *''ubuge'': soft/easy *''hakumei'': twilight *''enkatsu'': harmony/balance *''kurai'': dark/darkness *''rai'': light *''kaosu'': chaos *''kiritsu'': order *''kamei'': order/command *''ukiyo'': life (n) *''shikyo'': death (n) *''seimei'': life (state of being) *''zetsumei'': death (state of being) Behind the Scenes Gamatsu is heavily based upon the real life language of Japanese. Many of the words, however, in Gamatsu do not correspond to their real life Japanese counterparts, and some words in Gamatsu aren't words at all, but simply sound like Japanese words, or are constructions of one or more parts of Japanese words. The Grammar rules, however, are not like Japanese at all, and Gamatsu should not be misconstrued as the Star Wars version of Japanese. It does not have Japanese characters and will never be similar to any real world Japanese writing. There was really no system to choosing the words, when Gamatsu was being made. If words fit well, they were chosen. It just so happened that some words corresponded to their real life meanings, and some didn't. Category:Templar Info Category:Languages